crash and burn
by tatty ted
Summary: Keira and her daughter Tianna arrive in Holby trying to convince her husband Tom that their marriage can be saved. Instead, she finds herself in an accident and the aftermath leaves Tom questioning if his relationship with Sam is strong enough to survive the trauma. - —Tom/Sam/OC.
1. CHAPTER I

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**crash and burn**  
_we're just two people lost in the world._

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She stands outside the Emergency Department, hair blowing in the wind, sucking on a cigarette. It's a disgusting habit, one that she took up when she was fourteen and briefly broke at twenty when she got pregnant with Tianna.

She hadn't a clue why after all this time, she's ended up here. In Holby, trying to track down her husband. Maybe it's because when she was handed those divorce papers she realised she didn't want to give up the fight, she needed him. Tianna needed him too.

Her daughter's sat in the pushchair, Shona the doll on her lap, "Are we seeing daddy?" She exclaims excitedly and Keira nods. Yes they're seeing Tom, they've got too, there's too much to sort out. Her daughter squeels happily and she can't help but smile.

She stubs the cigarette out on the wall, the cigarette half-smoked and places it back in her packet of Sterling cigarettes. She places them back in her handbag and smoothes down her hair, the ends becoming mattered. She sighs and runs a brush through her hair for a second.

She glances around, takes the brakes off the pushchair and begins to walk into the hospital. She walks towards the large reception desk which is manned by a woman and a man. She waits in line, her heart beating furiously.

"Mummy?" She bends down when her daughter calls her, "Yes sweetheart?"

"Do you think Daddy remembers me?"

"Of course," she presses her lips against her daughter's forehead and stands up; "Daddy will still remember us."

The man in line moves out of the way and it's her turn to speak to the receptionist. The woman doesn't even make eye contact as she asks how she can help. Keira's silent for a moment, she isn't sure how to come about it.

"Would it be possible to speak to Tom Kent, please?"

Louise looks up, making eye contact with the woman. She's only young, mid twenties, bright red hair and piercings. She wonders why such a person would want to talk to Tom, "Who should I say is asking to speak to him?"

There's another pause, "His wife and daughter."

She notices the reaction between the woman and the man. They both seem to make eye contact and break apart straight away. She wonders if he hadn't mentioned he was married, why would he though? Until today they'd agreed to divorce, their marriage no longer "working".

"I'll see if I can find him," She begins and gestures over at the waiting room. Keira pushes the pram over to a free seat and sits down. Tianna looks at her mummy and laughs; "It smells funny in here doesn't it?"

"It's called disinfectant and it makes all the nasty bugs go away."

"Disinfectant? that's a big word mummy." She nods. She glances around the hospital, wondering if it was a good idea to come here. It had been over a year since they agreed their marriage was simply over, a year and now she turns up out of the blue.

"Keira?" She brings her eyes up, staring at her husband. She smiles, "Hello Tom."

Tianna jumps out of the pram and clutches her daddy's leg; "Daddy! You didn't forget me!" She exclaims. He picks her up, his daughter and hugs her tightly. He kisses her forehead and answers back;

"Of course daddy didn't forget you," He smiles and looks at Keira, "What do you want?"

"We need to talk," she begins, "I can't do it Tom, I can't go through with the divorce."

He nods and glances around, hoping the coast is clear. He puts Tianna down on the floor and looks at his watch. He knows he can't discuss it here, at work and tells Keira that he has a break in ten minutes and that they'd talk then.

She nods, that's something but she can't help but question the way Tom's acting, like he's got something to hide. In the pit of Keira's stomach, there's a sinking feeling and a doubt. It would not surprise her if he had another family tucked up here.

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**jottings** / if you like it enough to favourite/alert, please leave a review:3 PS. been away from the casualty fandom for far too long.


	2. CHAPTER II

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**CHAPTER TWO**  
_it started when we were younger._

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She agrees to meet him in ten minutes in a cafe nearby. Well slightly nearby but not too close, that way nobody would bump into Tom and recognise him. Kiera's sucking on a straw to her strawberry milkshake and Tianna's fiddling with a blueberry muffin getting crumbs everywhere.

"Why are you here?"

"We need to talk."

"About?" She takes the straw out of her mouth and looks at Tom; "I can't go through with the divorce when I still love you."

He sighed. They'd already spoken about this a year ago over the phone. He thought that was the end of it, she'd grant him a divorce and they'd move on and live separate lives. How wrong could he be.

"Kiera," He begins but she cuts him off, "Hear me out."

He reluctantly agrees to hear out his wife, "We split up because I couldn't handle that you were more successful than me. I was jealous alright? I was jealous of the fact you were able to live your life and I wasn't. It's stupid. I love you, I love you for who you are and I look back now and realise how stupid I was being."

He shakes his head and takes her hand in his, "Kiera, we were never going to work. You — w_e _were too young. This is for the best, us divorcing."

"Is it? What about Tianna?" She nods towards the youngster, sat next to her father oblivious to the world. Tom looks at his daughter and sighs. He doesn't say anything for a moment or two before he answers;

"I'll see her every weekend I promise."

"Please Tom," He gives her hand a little squeeze and answers; "I've moved on. I've met somebody, she's called Sam, she's a Doctor."

"Oh right, well, fine if that's how you feel."

"This is for the best," He says again and she reluctantly agrees. She explains she'll go through with the divorce and he should have the letters soon from her solicitor. She tells Tianna to give her daddy a kiss and that they're going to go home now.

Tianna drops her muffin and looks at her daddy, "Bye bye daddy, I love you."

He picks her up and hugs her tightly. He breathes in her smell, cherry almond shampoo and finds himself getting a little teary. He'd already missed a lot of her life with him being here and them being down south. He sighs and kisses her forehead,

"Daddy loves you two baby."

He puts her in the buggy, hands her Shona the doll and blows her a kiss. Kiera looks at Tom for a split second and whispers goodbye. She turns to leave and walks out of the cafe, pushing the buggy in front. Tom watches her as she walks away and wonders if there was any hope for them.

He smiles softly as he remembers the first time he met Kiera.

She was seventeen and he was twenty-three. They'd been in the queue at Starbucks and she'd collected her coffee before bumping into him, spilling it everywhere. After that they spoke a lot on the phone and the rest is what they call history.

It just went downhill, the moment Tom became a Doctor. Kiera couldn't help but become jealous, she was left alone to raise their daughter. They began to argue, to fight and in the end it was Tom's decision to end their relationship.

Tom walks back to work, wondering if he should really tell Sam about him being married and a father.

He decides against it, not knowing the decision will come back and haunt him.

/

She grips the car wheel with both hands, Tianna in the back seat playing with Shona. Her mobile phone rings and Kiera reaches over to the passenger seat to get it. She picks it up and straightens up, realising at that moment, she's heading straight for a car.

She swerves and loses control.

She tries to jam on the breaks but they don't slow the car down.

The last thing she remembers is hearing the sound of crunching metal, hitting her head against the steering wheel and the soft whine of Tianna before she loses consciousness.

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**jottings** — if you like it enough to favourite/alert, please leave a review:3


	3. CHAPTER III

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**CHAPTER THREE**  
_i need you boo, i need you._

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"Mummy?" Tianna whispers as she clutches Shona the doll. Kiera doesn't move and Tianna can smell burning. She feels scared. She takes off her seatbelt and reaches over.

"Mummy?"

Kiera still doesn't move and Tianna remembers something her mummy told her. If they were ever in trouble she has to ring an important number. Tianna takes the phone that's fallen on the passenger seat and flips it open.

She stares at the phone and notices the last number to ring was her daddy's. She presses the green button on the phone and presses the phone to her ear. It rings and rings and rings until she hears her daddy's voice.

_"Kiera?"_

"Daddy! Mummy's poorly and won't wake up!"

_"Tianna? Tianna, where are you?"_

"In the car."

_"And where were you going?"_

"Me and mummy were going home. Daddy please come quickly, I'm scared. Mummy's bleeding and she's asleep. The car smells funny too. The car is burning and I'm scared because I don't want to leave mummy, please come quickly."

_"I will Tianna I promise. Listen to me Tianna, I need you to be a really big brave girl can you do that? Yes. I need you to tell me where you are, what can you see?"_

Tianna breathes deeply, that sick feeling in her stomach. She looks around at her surroundings and exclaims; "Sheep, I can see sheep!" She climbs over the seat and sits beside Kiera. She touches her hair, getting blood on her hand in the process.

"Daddy, are you on your way?"

_"Yes daddy's almost there. Can you hear the ambulance?"_

"Yes!"

_"Daddy's in the ambulance, he's going to look after mummy okay? But I need you to look after mummy first, just until daddy gets there."_

"Okay," she whispers. She looks back and finds Shona alone on the backseat. She wants to hold her but she knows that mummy is more important. She touches her mummy's shoulder and tries to wake her up again.

"Wake up."

There's still nothing and Tianna sighs. She bites her lower lip slightly, still worried about her mum. At that minute, the ambulance pulls up and the sick feeling slowly disappears from the pit of Tianna's stomach. Her daddy is here, everything is going to be okay.

"Tianna," she hears her daddy say and she looks at him before making eye contact with the two people beside him.

"These are my friends Jeff and Dixie, they're going to look after you and munmy okay?" He isn't bothered about people knowing, they're going to know now anyway. He smiles at his little girl as Jeff kneels down to her, "Hello Princess, I'm Jeff."

"Will you make sure mummy's okay?"

Jeff nods and takes Tianna to the ambulance. He thinks it's best to keep her out of harms way. Distraction was the best thing to happen in situations like this, especially with children. Jeff glances back at Tom as he's trying to feel Keira's pulse.

"There's a pulse," he says to Dixie who nods, "You never told us you had a family?"

Tom didn't answer. His priority was Keria and their daughter, any questions could wait for later when everything was okay. If anything was ever going to be okay that was.

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jottings / thanks for the reviews. apologises for the late update, I've been working all week and I've still got 5days to go until my day off:( xx


	4. CHAPTER IV

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**CHAPTER FOUR.**  
_true love, true love never dies._

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They're both taken to Holby, Linda looks after Tianna, takes her to a cubicle.

She sits on the bed, legs stretched out in front of her, feeling a little sick and scared. She doesn't really like hospitals. They always smell funny, what was the word that mummy said — disinfectant.

"I'm Linda, what's your name?"

"Tianna," She answers back as she tilts her head to look at the blonde nurse; "I want my mummy." Linda looks back at the child and sees something familiar about her. She's seen her face behind, definitely seen her face somewhere before. She sits down next to Tianna and smiles softly;

"You can see your mummy when we've sorted out your poorly okay?"

She accepts the explanation for now. She will see her mummy when she's got a plaster on her poorly knee. She sticks her thumb in her mouth and begins to suck on it, remembering that Sian the doll, her comforter was still in the car, alone — like she was.

Thinking of Sian the doll triggers the memory of being alone with mummy, a mummy who wouldn't wake up and she bursts into tears. Linda looks at the child concerned and pulls her into a hug, whispering soothing words to her.

"It was scary, mummy wouldn't wake up and I didn't think daddy would save me."

"It's alright, your okay now so is your mummy and daddy."

"Daddy's going to make mummy better, that's his job. He makes people better," she nods excitedly, still snuggling into Linda's chest; her thumb still in her mouth. She falls asleep not long after, the worry and anxiety slowly fading away.

Resus is quiet. Ash and Sam are trying to find a pulse in Keira after she'd arrested on the way in. Tom's stood there, staring at the woman he fell in love with and remembers the last thing he ever said to her.

He swallows the lump in the back of his throat when he realises Keira won't be alive, she won't breathe again. He realises that Tianna will never see her mummy again. He swallows again as Ash takes a step back; "I'm sorry," Tom nods. He understands there's nothing left, she's gone.

He walks out, his legs like jelly. All he wants to do is collapse and cry and mourn the loss of his wife. Sam follows him, "Tom?"

He turns around and Sam takes a step towards him; "I'm really sorry, if there's anything I can do." She squeezes his arm and Tom smiles slightly. He's grateful for her support at a time like this. He's just sad about how him and Kiera parted terms. That was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

He doesn't know how he gets the strength to walk to cubicles and the cubicle his little girl's sat in. Linda looks at him; "Tom?"

He swallows. He can't even bring himself to say the words so instead he shakes his head. Linda knows what that means, she can see the hurt in his eyes. She smiles sadly, touches his arm and leaves him alone. Tianna's asleep on the bed, still sucking her thumb and he steps towards her.

He lies beside his daughter, hugs her tightly and begins to cry. He doesn't know how to break the news to a child that her mummy's never coming home.

/

"Daddy?" She wakes half an hour later, realising she's not alone. Tom stares at Tianna and gently tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "Hello sweetie."

"Where's mummy?" He's silent. He swallows hard because he doesn't know what to say. He sits Tianna on his lap, kisses the top of her head and takes a deep breath. Then he says gently; "Mummy's gone to be an angel in the sky."

"Mummy's gone to heaven?"

Her bottom lip wobbled and she burst into tears. Tom held her closely, his own cheeks becoming wet from the tears he cried over his ex-wife. He swallowed as he realised that now, he'd have to man up, he'd have to become a dad because Tom was the only thing Tianna had left.

"Who's going to look after me?"

"I will, daddy loves you Tianna." He kissed the top of her head and hugged her until they both fell asleep. He knew it was going to be difficult, dealing with everything. Juggling work with being a father, grieving for Keira and deciding where his relationship with Sam lay.

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**jottings** / if you like it enough to favourite/alert, please leave a review:3 sorry for not updating for ages, i've been massively busy!


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